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It’s been a while, but despite prolonged family illness, death, and a car wreck...oh, did I leave out war and famine?... I’m back. Oh, boy, am I back! I just got news that my painting, Guardians at the Gate, has been accepted into the Northwest Watercolor Society 71st Open Exhibition!
For the uninitiated, the NWWS is one of the top-tier watercolor societies in the States, and this exhibition is one of the mileposts many professional artists strive for. Am I excited? Oh, yeah.
One of the most amazing, sobering parts of this was seeing my name on the same list as Jean Dobie, Ted Nuttal, and Eric Wiegardt. In a word, Wow.
Not only that, but “Summer Bright” (right photo) has been juried into the Richeson 75 Still Life & Floral 2011 International Competition in Wisconsin. Whooee! I could get used to this.
Seriously, though, this has taken some hard work. If I could put it in a nutshell for you, I would repeat what Mike Bailey said when he was talking about getting into the big shows. “Great design trumps great technique every time.”
So break out Frank Webb’s design book (I got mine from the printer online) and Stephen Quiller’s newest book, Water Media Painting with Stephen Quiller and check out his chapter on composition. Study. Visit museums and galleries. Take workshops.
Push yourself hard, and you’ll get there. Now go paint!
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Excitement comes in all sizes and shapes these days. From requests to teach workshops to the upcoming Scotland trip to study with master water media artist Stephen Quiller, this has been an amazing few months. And it just keeps coming!
Recently, I entered “23rd Psalm” (below) and “Remembrance” (see my Florals) in the Richeson 75 Still Life & Floral 2010 International Competition, and both of them were accepted! For an artist who has no “region” in which to compete on her way from locally known to nationally known, this is a huge step. You see, Reno is geographically pretty isolated, so all the venues jump directly from local (a 50 mile or so radius) to national. That means a big jump in the level of expertise in competitors.
OK, so now you can appreciate how exciting it is to find out “23rd Psalm” was awarded 2nd Place in the Other Media category.
Did I jump up and down in circles making Woohoo! noises? Oh, yeah. Thank you again, Jane Hofstetter and Mike Bailey. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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If you are looking for someone to help you with design, I have a couple of great names: Mike Bailey and Jane Hofstetter. Back in March, I took “Watercolor - Beyond the Obvious” from Mike and learned so much that I was dreaming about painting all night long. It was great! I’m still jazzed.
A couple of months later, I got to watch Jane Hofstetter, the author of “7 Keys to Great Paintings” demonstrate. Wow. Did she live up to the hype! About halfway through the waterfall, what she was saying and doing combined with what Mike had said, and I swear I could actually feel things go “click”! I am seeing paintings, mine and others’, in a totally different way. Shapes instead of things, light and dark pathways, focal areas instead of focal points. This is beyond jazzed.
Now we’ll see what I do with it.
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Remember me saying how much I learned from Mike Bailey? (Getting Serious About Design, Sunday, May 30) Well, I got another boost from excellent artist, Jane Hofstetter (7 Keys to Great Paintings). Right in the middle of her demo last month, everything just went “click”...you know, the kind of “click” you feel everywhere in your body.
I went straight home and went to work on every painting I could get my hands on. “Testament” was one of them. I also started a new one of anthuria done wet-in-wet that almost finished itself, and I am so excited about painting again that I can’t believe it.
Oh. Hey. I know lots of you don’t believe it, but Everyone runs into those walls now and then no matter how much painting you’ve got under your belt. You reach a point where it seems like you’re always always making the same mistake over and over again or painting everything the same old way. For me it was the latter, and no, it’s not easy hauling yourself over those walls.
Why is it so hard? Because it’s time to learn something new, to think differently. It’s time to grow. And that requires not only effort but a fair amount of discomfort and frustration.
It’s worth it, though. I’m dreaming in colors I’ve never used before and planning paintings I couldn’t have imagined six months ago!
So no matter how thick and tall that wall is, climb it. No matter what. The view from the top is incredible!
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For those of you who thought I’d forgotten, here is the sunflower painting I demonstrated in last year’s Summer Flowers in Watercolor class at TMCC’s Continuing Ed campus. Not only that, it has been accepted into the Richeson 75 Still Life/Floral International Competition in Wisconsin! Here is a photo to show you where I was when we ran out of class time.
